Our Lady of Czestochowa

Seven Dominican brothers were ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Anthony Fisher, OP, who leads the Archdiocese of Sydney, Australia. The newest Dominican priests are Louis Mary Bethea, Gregory Marie Santy, Bertrand Marie Hebert, Basil Mary Burroughs, Titus Mary Sanchez, Nicodemus Maria Thomas, and Linus Mary Martz, pictured here with the archbishop at their ordination at the the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., on June 4, 2025. / Credit: Jeffrey Bruno

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 6, 2025 / 17:57 pm (CNA).

On Wednesday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., seven Dominican brothers were ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Anthony Fisher, OP, who leads the Archdiocese of Sydney, Australia.

“We are overjoyed at the ordination of seven of our brothers to the priesthood of Jesus Christ,”  Father Allen Moran, OP, prior provincial of the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Joseph, told CNA.

“I, and all the friars of the Province of St. Joseph, look forward to the good work that God will do through them in our parishes, campus ministries, intellectual apostolates, hospital chaplaincies, and digital evangelization efforts.”

The newest Dominicans joining the community as priests are Louis Mary Bethea, Gregory Marie Santy, Bertrand Marie Hebert, Basil Mary Burroughs, Titus Mary Sanchez, Nicodemus Maria Thomas, and Linus Mary Martz.

“May God bring the good work he has begun to completion,” Moran said at the June 4 ordination. “Thanks be to God for the gift of these seven new priests!"

Fisher ordained the priests in a three-hour-long Mass and ordination ceremony. “Now seven of Dominic’s sons will become the fantastic seven,” Fisher said. “All part of a team of 400,000 priest presbyters sanctifying our world.”

Fisher served as the ordaining bishop and was joined by Archbishop James Green, who ordained Pope Leo XIV a bishop in 2014. 

Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala of Washington and Archbishop Borys Gudziak, the metropolitan archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, also concelebrated the Mass.

At the end of the liturgy, Fisher asked for “a word of thanks” for all “who have influenced and supported the priests on their vocational journeys” and those “who have helped them in discernment and formation.”

“Seven is a very Catholic number,” Fisher continued.

“Not just for clergy but for sacraments, virtues, hills of Rome, and deadly sins,” he joked.

“You can work out which of our new priests is best identified as Father Baptism or Father Confession, and the rest. And who is Father Prudence, or Father Temperance, Father Hope. Which is more aventine or escaline. But of course none of them would be Father Gluttony or Father Sloth,” he continued.

“Dominican Province of St. Joseph and the Church universal rings out with joy today; the Church has seven new priests,” Fisher said. “Yet the flock of Jesus Christ needs many new shepherds if we are to fulfill Christ’s injunction to lead the sheep and nurture the lambs. So I ask you all to pray for more like these.”

Fisher offered a message to the young men of America: “People are crying out for words of life and sacraments of grace to transfigure their hearts and lives. You might be the very one by God’s grace to offer them this as a Dominican priest.”

“May our new priests inspire you to give yourself over to God’s plan for you,” Fisher said. 

null / Credit: Mark Van Scyoc/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 6, 2025 / 17:27 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Department of State (DOS) plans to destroy a reserve of artificial contraceptives that was previously set aside for distribution in developing countries through foreign aid programs.

The stockpile, including birth control pills, condoms, and long-term implantable contraceptives, is worth more than $12 million.

A senior State Department official confirmed to CNA that officials had concerns that some of the nongovernmental organizations previously contracted to distribute contraceptives may have participated in programs that performed coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.

According to the official, the DOS is destroying the products to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order to reinstate the Mexico City Policy, which bans taxpayer funding of organizations that promote abortion and forced sterilization abroad.

Destroying the products will cost DOS about $167,000, but rebranding the products to resell them would have cost taxpayers several million dollars, according to the official.

“There is no reason that U.S. taxpayers should be footing the bill for contraception domestically or abroad,” the official added.

Rebecca Oas, the director of research for the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam) told CNA that funding of “the international family planning movement” has been “inextricably tied to the abortion lobby” ever since the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) formed the Office of Population in 1969.

“There are a lot of reasons why we should want to support global maternal health separately from family planning in order to ensure a pro-life foreign policy,” said Oas, whose organization lobbies for pro-life policies in the United States’ international relations.

Oas said the movement has also had a “coercion” problem for the last half-century even though current advocates of international contraception funding “insist that contraceptive use must be voluntary.”

“Their metrics unfortunately lay the groundwork for potential coercion by regarding contraceptive uptake and continuation as an unfettered good by falsely conflating a purported ‘need’ for contraceptives with lack of access, and by regarding things like concern about side effects, openness to having more children, and religious and moral objections as ‘barriers’ to increased contraceptive use,” Oas added. “Family planning groups will admit that their problem is not a lack of supply but a lack of demand.”

In one recent example of coercion, Oas noted that several Rohingya Muslim women who are refugees in Bangladesh reported they were forced to get long-term contraceptive implantations if they wanted to receive food rations for their newborn children. These accounts were reported by The New Humanitarian last month, which also cited sources complaining that such coercion against refugees is widespread throughout the country.

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, referred to the prior U.S.-backed international family planning programs as “pro-abortion and anti-family imperialism.”

“If those countries want to obtain contraceptives, let their own governments set up contracts directly with the manufacturers of these morally-problematic items and drugs, and pay for them on their own,” he told CNA. “The U.S., and U.S. aid agencies, should not be serving as middle men, underwriters, or imperialist brokers for any of this.”

The moral problems of contraception

Although the Trump administration is preventing tax money from funding contraceptives abroad, it has not taken any actions to discourage or restrict contraceptive use. The administration, along with an overwhelming majority of Americans across the ideological spectrum, support access to contraception.

The Catholic Church, however, opposes artificial contraception when used to prevent pregnancy as intrinsically immoral. Pacholczyk said contraceptives do not “heal or restore any broken system of the human body” but rather break the reproductive system “often by means of disrupting the delicate balance of hormonal cycles regulating a woman’s reproductive well-being and fecundity.”

“Unspoken ideological agendas which propagate permissiveness and various other false notions regarding our human sexuality should not be allowed to undermine the duty to exercise moral responsibility and to develop the discipline needed to live in a state of sexual restraint and order,” Pacholczyk added.

In the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, St. Paul VI notes that “each and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life,” adding that one cannot take “any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse is specifically intended to prevent procreation.”

“The fundamental nature of the marriage act, while uniting husband and wife in the closest intimacy, also renders them capable of generating new life — and this as a result of laws written into the actual nature of man and of woman,” the Holy Father wrote. “And if each of these essential qualities, the unitive and the procreative, is preserved, the use of marriage fully retains its sense of true mutual love and its ordination to the supreme responsibility of parenthood to which man is called.”

The Church permits natural family planning (NFP), which uses the body’s natural cycle to know when the wife will be fertile and when she will not be fertile, which can assist a married couple in family planning.

Cardinal Robert McElroy gives his first homily as the shepherd of the Archdiocese of Washington at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on March 11, 2025. / Credit: Patrick Ruddy/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 6, 2025 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Washington has announced plans to “cut spending, reduce its workforce, and restructure departments” to combat “crippling economic challenges.”

In a June 5 letter sent to archdiocesan staff members, Cardinal Robert McElroy indicated that the archdiocese has had an annual operating deficit of $10 million for the past five years, leading the archdiocese “to draw from financial reserves to cover shortfalls.”

The cardinal archbishop of Washington said “our situation has only been exacerbated by the present economic uncertainty that is impacting so many, both locally and globally.” 

“I have come to the painful realization that the only way forward is to take drastic measures to achieve a balanced budget by July 1 of this year,” McElroy wrote. “This means that the archdiocese will need to cut spending, reduce its workforce, and restructure departments to accommodate a more streamlined pastoral center.”

McElroy explained that “the financial impacts of the pandemic and the fallout of the [former cardinal and leader of the archdiocese Theodore] McCarrick scandal, coupled with an extended period of inflation and volatile financial markets” are among the causes of the “crippling economic challenges” facing the archdiocese.

“The most difficult decision that I have had to make in order to achieve a balanced budget was to authorize a reduction in force to eliminate approximately 30 positions of pastoral center staff. Several vacant positions will be left unfilled, and a number of dedicated, hardworking employees will lose their jobs,” McElroy wrote. 

“I apologize profoundly to those who will be losing their jobs,” McElroy wrote. “This process is not a reflection on the quality or importance of your work.” 

The majority of layoffs will be from the archdiocese’ pastoral center in Hyattsville, Maryland. Prior to the layoffs approximately 120 people worked in the building, but the restructuring plans will reduce the staff by about one-fourth.

“I am sensitive to the reality that there are many people and families who will be impacted by this process — whether it be a devoted employee who loses his or her job, a remaining co-worker who must take on additional responsibilities, or the ripple effect on the many who are served by an important ministry that can no longer be funded at past levels.”

McElroy said the archdiocese will be “offering severance, extended benefits, and outplacement services” to the eliminated employees. 

“I pray the Lord will accompany all of you in these days, understanding that it is God’s service that unites all of us who work for the archdiocese, and your commitment to God’s service that makes our current situation all the more difficult,” McElroy said.

Pope Leo XIV meets with delegates to the annual meeting of moderators of associations of the faithful, ecclesial movements, and new communities on June 6, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 6, 2025 / 16:00 pm (CNA).

Christians must not attempt to live out the promises of Christ alone, Pope Leo XIV told a delegation of 250 people in Rome for the Jubilee of Ecclesial Movements, Associations, and New Communities.

Organized by the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, the annual meeting of moderators of associations of the faithful, ecclesial movements, and new communities comes as more than 70,000 pilgrims are expected to arrive in Rome for the jubilee this weekend, June 7–8.

“The Christian life is not lived in isolation,” the Holy Father said in his Friday address to the delegation, representatives of several lay associations and ecclesial movements. “It is lived with others, in a group and in community, because the risen Christ is present wherever disciples gather in his name.”

Confirmed movements and associations set to attend this weekend are the Neocatechumenal Way, Catholic Action, Communion and Liberation, the Shalom Community, Charis International, Sant’Egidio, Focolare, Rinnovamento nello Spirito Santo, Opera di Maria, and the Parish Cells of Evangelization, according to the Dicastery for Evangelization.

Pope Leo received Neocatechumenal Way founder Kiko Argüello in a private audience on Thursday.

In his Friday address, the Holy Father noted the presence of institutional groups “founded to carry out a common apostolic, charitable, or liturgical project, or to support Christian witness in specific social settings,” and of those born out of “charismatic inspiration.” 

“All are important to the Church,” Pope Leo said, citing a passage from the Second Vatican Council, which stated that with ecclesial movements, “a much richer harvest can be hoped for from them than if each member were to act on his or her own.” 

Pope Leo said such groups should be understood in reference to grace. “Without charisms, there is a risk that Christ’s grace, offered in abundance, may not find good soil to receive it,” he continued. “That is the reason why God raises up charisms: to awaken in hearts a desire to encounter Christ and a thirst for the divine life that he offers us.” 

‘Leaven of unity’

Unity and mission are essential to the life of the Church and of the Petrine ministry, the pope emphasized to the delegation, urging them to be “a leaven of unity” and to always keep “missionary zeal” alive among themselves.

“​​We have one Head, one grace that fills us, we live on one Bread, we walk on one path and we live in the same house... We are one, in both the spirit and the body of the Lord. If we separate ourselves from that One, we become nothing,” Pope Leo said, quoting a letter from St. Paulinus of Nola to St. Augustine. 

Recalling his own experience as a missionary priest in Peru, Leo noted that the Church’s mission has “shaped my spiritual life.” He further urged those gathered to place their talents in service of the Church “in order to reach those who, albeit distant, are often waiting, without being aware of it, to hear God’s word of life.”

In his concluding remarks, the pope encouraged the delegation to “always keep the Lord Jesus at the center!” 

This, he said, is the essential purpose of charisms. 

“All of us are called to imitate Christ, who emptied himself to enrich us,” he said, concluding: “Those who join with others in pursuing an apostolic goal and those who enjoy a charism are called alike to enrich others through the emptying of self. It is a source of freedom and great joy.”

St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt. / Credit: Harmony Video Production/Shutterstock

ACI MENA, Jun 6, 2025 / 15:30 pm (CNA).

The future of St. Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula remains a source of controversy, with tensions rising after a recent court ruling that transferred the site to state ownership while granting the Church only usage rights.

The decision was met with strong opposition from the monastery’s monks, who have now closed its doors to visitors in protest.

Despite reassurances from Egyptian authorities, the ruling has alarmed the Orthodox Church, which described it as a “dangerous precedent.” 

The opposition has extended far beyond Egypt.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople along with the Orthodox Patriarchates of Jerusalem and Alexandria, the Churches of Greece and Cyprus, and the Greek Union of Theologians have all voiced apprehension. Meanwhile, other churches have chosen to remain silent — a stance that has only complicated the situation further.

Greece has emerged as the strongest political voice in defense of the monastery, issuing formal statements and engaging in high-level diplomacy to protect the sacred Orthodox site. Greece’s minister of foreign affairs, Georgios Gerapetritis, met with Egypt’s minister of foreign affairs, Badr Abdelatty, in Cairo on Wednesday where they discussed the status of St. Catherine’s.

Archbishop Damianos of Sinai, Pharan, and Raitho described the situation as “judicial manipulation.” He explained that since 1980, the monastery has submitted ownership documents for 71 sites and retained official receipts as proof. However, the state has consistently refused to recognize these claims, even as similar cases were fully acknowledged elsewhere. He expressed frustration that the monks are now being treated as if they’ve illegally seized land and are being asked to pay to use it.

He added that a previous agreement had been reached between the Church and Egyptian authorities, with Greek government representatives present. However, the deal was recently altered unilaterally.

“We have protected this treasure since the sixth century,” he said. “And now we’re told we can use it — but we don’t own it.” With sorrow, he continued: “I am 91 years old, and I have lived here since I was 27. Imagine how great the pain is!”

The monastery’s legal representative, Christos Kompiliris, explained that negotiations over the agreement lasted nine months and were nearly finalized when talks abruptly ended just before the signing. A court ruling was then issued that contradicted the core of that understanding. He warned that the ruling allows the state to reclaim the property if the monks ever leave — for any reason — placing their continued presence at the mercy of unpredictable political or administrative decisions.

“This new legal status puts the monastery’s entire future at risk,” he said.

Kompiliris also expressed concern that the ruling not only affirms state ownership but also permits the confiscation of 25 of the 71 properties belonging to the monastery.

Behind the scenes, some believe the controversy stems from the “Great Transfiguration” project, launched in 2021 by the Egyptian president to turn the St. Catherine area into a fully integrated tourist destination. Critics argue that the plan threatens the site’s sacred monastic character. Others, however, view the ruling as a matter of Egyptian sovereignty, intended to prevent the monastery from evolving into an independent entity, something akin to a “new Vatican.”

This story was first published by ACI MENA, CNA's Arabic-language news partner, and has been translated for and adapted by CNA.

Pope Leo XIV speaks with prisoners who attended his general audience on June 4, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jun 6, 2025 / 14:45 pm (CNA).

Two prisoners currently serving sentences in Rome’s Rebibbia prison obtained special permission to participate in Pope Leo XIV’s general audience this past Wednesday.

“We received an official invitation from the Vatican to participate in the audience, and the inmates asked the magistrate for special permission, which was granted,” Father Marco Fibbi, the prison’s chaplain, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. Fibbi accompanied them to St. Peter’s Square with the prison’s director, Teresa Mascolo.

“It was a great gift for the inmates to be able to exchange a few words with the pope,” the Italian priest said.

“We were all very moved because it was Pope Leo XIV’s third general audience. We had the privilege of being among the first to meet him in person. We were impressed by his accessibility, attention, and closeness with which he listened to what the inmates had to say,” Fibbi commented.

The words the pope spoke during the catechesis seemed especially fitting for those who are imprisoned: “He said that we can all be called by the Lord at some point in life; even in the worst moments when we feel most inadequate, the Lord always comes to meet us.”

The inmates at Rebibbia have committed crimes — some very serious — but they have the right to start over, Fibbi said. “All prisons are places of separation, of expiation of punishment, and therefore of much suffering and pain. But very often I have had experiences that show that all is never lost and that one can be reborn,” said Fibbi, who has been doing prison ministry at the facility for the last six years.

He added: “We are called, as prison chaplains, to nurture this hope, fostering the deep motivation to return to society in a different way or to use their time in prison as a positive moment.”

As soon as they learned they would be able to greet the pope in person, the inmates got busy making him a gift. Thanks to one of the penitentiary’s craft workshops, they handcrafted a small silver cross that reproduces the Cross of Hope, embossed with the anchor logo and the Christogram.

The prison has various spaces where inmates can develop their creativity. For example, in the workshop called Metamorphosis, they transform the battered barges that transport migrants from the Mediterranean to Europe into various objects, such as rosaries, which are then delivered to the Vatican.

Pope Francis had a special place in his heart for prisoners

“One of the first things he [Francis] did as pope was to wash the feet of those detained in the Casal del Marmo prison, a gesture he performed almost every Holy Thursday during the 12 years of his pontificate. Until shortly before his death, he wanted to visit Regina Caeli prison, although he couldn’t celebrate Mass with them because he had just left the hospital,” Fibbi recalled.

He even decided to make an exception during the 2025 Jubilee, dedicated to hope, and open a holy door in the Roman prison as well.

“In the bull announcing the Ordinary Jubilee of 2025, Spes non Confundit, he named the prison as the first place to bring hope,” the priest explained.

Fibbi shared that the prison’s detainees experienced the April 21 death of Pope Francis with great sadness and wanted to be in the front row at his funeral.

“I clearly saw them participate with great emotion in Pope Francis’ funeral. They loved him very much,” the priest noted.

Pope Leo XIV’s gesture of wanting to receive the two detainees in the audience appears to continue Francis’ legacy.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Stills from a video shared with EWTN News and taken by the pilgrims on May 30, 2025, while the procession was in the Diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma, show Catholic participants in the procession walking and singing while a young man on the sidelines, speaking through a bullhorn and walking alongside the crowd, deplores Eucharistic devotion as “idolatry.” / Credit: Photos courtesy of Jason Shanks

National Catholic Register, Jun 6, 2025 / 14:15 pm (CNA).

After disruption by anti-Catholic protesters in Oklahoma and Texas in recent days, organizers of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage say they fully expect that the group of protesters, organized principally by a Protestant church in Texas, will continue to follow and attempt to disrupt the cross-country Eucharistic procession for the remainder of its route to Los Angeles. 

“I’m calling on all Catholics to show up for Jesus. This is our opportunity to step out in faith, to step out in witness, and to witness to the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist,” said Jason Shanks, president of the National Eucharistic Congress, at a June 5 press conference. 

The pilgrimage, which began in mid-May in Indianapolis, is a 3,300-mile, 10-state trek that has already brought a group of eight young Catholic “Perpetual Pilgrims” to the heart of Texas with the Eucharist, and it will conclude in Los Angeles in late June. 

The goal of the pilgrimage, which is a continuation of the unprecedented four national pilgrimages that took place last summer, is to bear public witness to the Church’s teaching that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist and to invite members of the public to join the processions and celebrate their belief in the Eucharist as well.

Videos shared with EWTN News and taken by the pilgrims on May 30, while the procession was in the Diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma, show Catholic participants in the procession walking and singing while a young man on the sidelines, speaking through a bullhorn and walking alongside the crowd, deplores Eucharistic devotion as “idolatry.” 

More recently, on June 4 in Dallas, the pilgrims encountered small groups of protesters walking with bullhorns and holding signs with anti-Catholic messages. Videos show large numbers of Catholics processing down a suburban street with the Eucharist while singing hymns in Spanish. Some of the protesters, including those holding anti-Catholic signs, appeared to be families with small children. 

Shanks described the protests as “unexpected,” given that the pilgrimages last year did not engender pushback of this kind. He said the protests, which have swelled in recent days to some 40 to 50 “well-organized” people, are being principally organized by the Church of Wells, a Protestant congregation based in a small town about three hours southeast of Dallas. 

The website of the Church of Wells, a small but influential and controversial congregation, includes numerous diatribes against Catholic belief, including belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

The idea that the Catholic view of the Eucharist would be subject to debate, and even to ridicule, is “not new for Catholics,” Shanks noted, and dates back all the way to the Bread of Life discourse in John’s Gospel.

Still, Shanks said the shouting and the debates taking place amid the pilgrimage have been a source of “interior suffering” for the pilgrims, and he called on all Catholics to respond not by engaging with protesters directly but rather with a “silent witness” to the truth of the Catholic faith with a spirit of “charity and humility.”

“We’re asking Catholics to come and evangelize through their silent witness, and their walk, because these protesters are focused on antagonizing, trying to get into debates, so they can put it online … because that’s how they raise money,” he continued.

Shanks said pilgrimage organizers have been engaged behind the scenes with law enforcement and security personnel to make sure the pilgrimage is a safe experience for all involved, though there is no reason to believe at this time that the protests will become violent, he added.

He also expressed appreciation and pride for the Perpetual Pilgrims, who have had to deal with the vocal protesters day after day, and urged Catholics to keep the pilgrims in their prayers. 

“I’m so proud of how they’ve been representing us as a Church. … We need to be, as a Church, united in solidarity with them,” Shanks said. 

At the Thursday press conference, several of the pilgrims spoke directly about the challenges of encountering the protests and the solace they’ve received through constant prayer. 

Ace Acuña spoke about how the experience has led him to a deeper understanding and appreciation of Jesus’ assurances about the reality of persecution for those who follow him. Biblical passages about enduring persecution have never come “more alive” for him than during this time, Acuña said.

“I honestly feel like my prayer has never been more fervent in my life,” he said, adding, quoting Acts 5:41, that it remains “a joy to suffer insults for the sake of the Name.”

Johnny Silvino Hernandez-Jose, another pilgrim, spoke about how important it has been for him to remember the reason why they are doing the pilgrimage and “not let it be overshadowed by something so little, compared to Jesus Christ.”

For Leslie Reyes-Hernandez, although the words of the protesters sting, she said she sees this challenge as a deeper calling from the Lord — an invitation to “hear all of the things that he was hearing on his way to the cross.”

Reyes-Hernandez said: “There were people that were in support of him being crucified, but also people who were mourning, like Our Lady, which is an image we can continue to resemble.” 

“We get the blessing to be with Our Lord [at] the cross every day, and it’s drawing my faith even closer and closer to him.”

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA's sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

Princeton Professor Robert George speaks to “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly” anchor Abigail Galván on Thursday, June 5, 2025. / Credit: “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly”

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 6, 2025 / 13:45 pm (CNA).

A nationwide grassroots movement aspires to bring Americans together through shared beliefs in both God and country, a prominent political philosopher said this week. 

“Faith in God, fidelity to spouses and families, patriotism, and love for country and community have always been the glue that held Americans together,” said Professor Robert George in an interview on “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly.”

George, a legal and political scholar at Princeton University, appeared on the show to discuss the founding of the social movement and grassroots initiative Fidelity Month, aimed at bringing the country together after years of divide.

Fidelity Month “is a positive, grassroots movement to heal division and restore unity in our nation. It celebrates June as a season of recommitment to God, our spouses and families, our communities, and country,” the Fidelity Month website states. 

The movement’s website features upcoming events, webinars, and guides on how people can contribute to the monthlong observance. Participants are urged to pray, promote Fidelity Month in their neighborhoods and on social media, and organize events of their own. 

The inspiration, George explained to “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly” anchor Abigail Galván, came after he read a 2023 Wall Street Journal article citing survey data that showed significant declines in Americans’ belief in the importance of religion, family, and patriotism.

“The one area in which the faith of Americans increased,” George noted, “was in the importance of money. But material things are secondary to what really matters: God, marriage and children, and our communities.”

George said he helped found Fidelity Month to encourage a recommitment to the values that have historically united the country.

“If we’re going to have unity and strength as a people,” he said, “it has to come from some common commitments.”

The scholar emphasized the importance of both civic and spiritual foundations: “First, we have our commitments as Americans to the Constitution, our system of government, and our republican civic order. But by itself, that’s too thin.”

“Americans have always relied on more than that. Across races, ethnicities, and religions, there’s been a shared belief in the importance of God. Our national motto is ‘In God we trust,’ and we say ‘One nation under God’ in our Pledge of Allegiance.”

“Over the years, I’ve witnessed increasing secularization and an inversion of values,” he said. “People are prioritizing wealth, power, influence, prestige, and status instead of faith, family, honor, integrity, beauty, and knowledge — things that are ends in themselves, not just means to other ends.”

Fidelity Month, George hopes, will serve as a rallying point for Americans to reclaim the enduring values that have long been the bedrock of national unity.

“Part of the Fidelity Month effort is to restore the integrity of our society by restoring faith, by restoring the institution of the family, by reviving our understanding of what really matters, more than money, more than power, more than influence,” he said.

Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states, meets with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel on June 5, 2025, in Cuba. / Credit: Vatican Secretariat of State

Vatican City, Jun 6, 2025 / 11:53 am (CNA).

The Vatican’s foreign minister is in Havana this week, where he met with local Catholics and political authorities during a visit marking 90 years of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the Holy See.

Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, secretary for relations with states, spoke Thursday at the Palacio de la Revolución, the house of the Cuban government and the office of the first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party, after meetings with President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz, earlier in the day. He also met Foreign Minister Bruno Eduardo Rodríguez Parrilla on June 4.

According to a post on X by the Secretariat of State, Gallagher’s presentation at the conference June 6 was on the diplomacy of the Holy See, “animated by evangelical values in the promotion of peace and human dignity, as an expression of the very catholicity of the Church.”

Cuba and the Holy See established diplomatic relations on June 7, 1935. Despite the 1959 Cuban Revolution, when Prime Minister Fidel Castro embraced Marxism-Leninism and imposed state atheism, diplomatic ties between the two states have never been broken.

According to the Vatican, 60% of Cuba’s population of over 11.2 million people is Catholic. There are over 300 parishes and more than 2,000 pastoral centers across three archdioceses and 11 dioceses.

On June 4, Gallagher met the bishops of Cuba, of which there are around 15 resident in the country, and celebrated Mass in Havana’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.

In his homily, according to Vatican News, the archbishop emphasized the valuable role the Catholic Church plays in Cuban society, saying “truth makes peaceful relations and constructive dialogue possible.”

He also indicated that peace, justice, and truth are principles that guide both the pastoral action and the diplomatic work of the Holy See, and noted that these principles can serve as a basis for cooperation with state institutions.

“The Church perpetuates this mission of caring for the flock that the Spirit has entrusted to her,” he said. Gallagher also mentioned that the Holy Father’s presence in the life of the Church in Cuba has been manifested not only through the apostolic nuncios but also through the visits of Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis.

Bringing the greeting of Pope Leo XIV to the Church in Cuba, the archbishop called on Mary, that she “who infused the radiance of heavenly light into Cuban souls, [may] turn tears into smiles, and may she return peace to those who are sad, so that the power of charity may live on among us.”

“The pope invites us to the ‘Hour of Love,’ where charity — not as alms but as love that gives life — must prevail. It is a pillar, along with peace, justice, and truth, of our action in society. Therefore, the Holy See reiterates its collaboration with Cuba for the common good,” Gallagher said, according to the website of the Cuban bishops’ conference.

Bringing the message of the Holy Father, the diplomat added: “Pope Leo XIV asked me to assure you that bishops, priests, seminarians, religious sisters, and all Cubans have ‘a little corner in his heart.’ He prays that, united with the successor of Peter, we may live our faith with a missionary spirit and achieve the peace that Christ left us.”

The Vatican’s secretary for relations with states also referred in his homily to the role of religious figures linked to Cuba’s spiritual history, such as Blesseds Olallo Valdés and José López Piteira, and Venerable Félix Varela, whom he described as “a great propagator of love among Cubans and among all people.”

According to the Cuban bishops’ conference, the Mass was attended by members of the Communist Party of Cuba, including Vice President Salvador Valdés Mesa and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.

Representatives of the Orthodox Church and other Christian denominations also participated, according to official Cuban newspaper Granma.

On the last day of his June 4–6 trip, Gallagher was also scheduled to visit the nursing home Hogar de Ancianos San Francisco de Paula.

Victoria Cardiel of CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, ACI Prensa, contributed to this report.

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CNA Staff, Jun 6, 2025 / 10:31 am (CNA).

Catholic bishops from Maryland, Delaware, and Washington, D.C., released a pastoral letter this week addressing the rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Church’s response to the numerous challenges and opportunities the technology presents. 

Signed by Baltimore Archbishop William Lori, Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington, Wilmington Bishop William Koenig, and Maryland’s four auxiliary bishops, the letter, titled “The Face of Christ in a Digital Age,” urges Christians to discern “how to speak and live the Gospel amid the new language and powers emerging through artificial intelligence.”

Released ahead of the solemnity of Pentecost, the bishops write that Christians should not fear the rapid development of technology, which “is not foreign to the Spirit’s work, for God’s Spirit moves through history, culture, and human creativity.”

However, the bishops write: “Will we allow technology to form us in its image — or will we shape it according to the Gospel?”

The Catholic Church “must be a prophetic voice, calling the world to place the human person, made in the image of God, at the heart of this transformation,” the letter states.

“No matter how advanced machines become, they can never replicate the soul, the conscience, or the eternal destiny that belongs to each human being,” the bishops argue in the letter.

The letter highlights AI’s potential benefits to humanity in the realms of health care, education, evangelization, and humanitarian efforts while warning of its risks, including job displacement and the use of lethal autonomous weapons, as well as the manipulation of truth. 

In order to teach discernment in an era where digitally fabricated content blurs the line between truth and falsehood and reality and fantasy, the bishops strongly emphasize a focus on the development of virtue, especially regarding the formation of conscience. 

“It is essential that we form consciences capable of discernment — especially among young people — so that they may not be manipulated by algorithms but by truth and grace,” the prelates write. “Digital tools can inform, but they cannot form the heart.”

The bishops call for parishes and families to ground digital engagement and media literacy in Scripture and the sacramental life and admonish the faithful to cultivate real “empathy and authentic relationships.” 

Michael Hanby, a professor of religion and philosophy of science at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, told CNA that while the document “identifies some obvious dangers with AI as well as some good uses to which it can be put,” it does not go far enough.

“There are other dangers,” Hanby continued, “especially the reduction of human intelligence ordered to understanding the truth, to a ‘functional intelligence without thinking or understanding,’ that the letter doesn’t really address.”

“It is built into the logic of technology, and especially technologies as powerful as this, that there are dangers that we simply cannot foresee.  We have not yet fully comprehended this new kind of power,” Hanby said.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Culture and Education addressed the same concerns as Hanby in a note issued in January titled “Antique et Nova: Note on the Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence.”

“The Christian tradition regards the gift of intelligence as an essential aspect of how humans are created ‘in the image of God’ (Gn 1:27),” the note stated, emphasizing that “one of the goals of this technology is to imitate the human intelligence that designed it.”

The dicastery acknowledged fears that AI could achieve a kind of superintelligence that “could one day eclipse the human person,” though some welcome this possibility.

“We do not know yet whether AI is simply a ‘tool’ that can be used or shaped according to the Gospel,” Hanby told CNA. “I wish the letter had emphasized more strongly the need for more philosophical thinking about this, and I wish it had taken a little more care to distinguish the movement of the Spirit, which is a mystery, from the history of technological progress. But then again, the letter presents an open-ended challenge, not the final word.”

Drawing parallels to other historical technological shifts like the invention of the printing press and the advent of the internet, the bishops in their letter encourage Catholics to approach AI with courage and hope, invoking the Holy Spirit to “renew the face of the earth” (Ps 104:30).